Brewery Updates in Minnesota (2019)

By becoming old hat and passe instead of the new hotness. In addition, many of the "grizzled veterans" that once embraced the style but are capable of appreciating less cloying fare already are moving on due to fatigue and boredom. You seem not to want to acknowledge the faddish aspects of the NEIPA phenomenon, as if cultural and social factors play no part in consumers' interest in beer. As I explained earlier, I believe a steady stream of hype is needed to sustain such a high level of ubiquity and prices, and that hype is in the process of dying down. Again, I don't expect the style to go away but rather to settle into the role that @JMN44 describes, the modern equivalent of "What's your lightest beer?"

I think sweet and low-bitterness beers across a wide range of styles -- although perhaps not at the same extremes as found in NEIPAs -- are the new normal, unfortunately, unless a large number of the newer drinkers weaned on the likes of NEIPAs and flavoring-adjunct-soaked beers exit the craft beer consumer base. That's an all-too-plausible possibility given how reliant the craft beer industry has become on casual consumers who don't demonstrate a particularly strong taste for the beverage (and hence want it to taste like something else, such as tropical fruit juice). I predict that universal sweetening and debittering (or a possible craft beer bust after unsustainable growth fueled by the chase of uncommitted, non-traditional customers) will be part of NEIPAs' legacy well after the style itself sinks to normalized production levels and Untappd ratings.

To tie this discussion back to the topic of the thread, I'll say it's interesting to watch the lineups of new breweries. The collaboration beers Pig Ate My Pizza has chosen to feature suggest that "sweet, flavored, and hip" isn't dead as a strategy yet. Then again, market forces have driven many a young brewery to pivot quickly. Let's not forget that even Barrel Theory showed no signs of being an NEIPA specialist in its lead-up to opening but very quickly positioned itself best to satisfy/exploit contemporary tastes.

 

Uh, what? ...they opened with two out of their five beers being NEIPA and another being a fruited kettle sour.

“We plan on doing crazy IPAs,” Splinter said. “We love the things [hyper-local breweries] Trillium and Treehouse are doing out East.”

https://www.brewbound.com/news/ex-surly-employees-open-barrel-theory-beer-company

 

That's partially fair given the November 2016 reference to Trillium and Tree House. I'm still waiting on the "and more" (besides pastry stouts), and obviously that "priority one" of "getting the cellar filled" got knocked way down the list, given the small output of barrel-aged product from Barrel Theory (has it produced any wine-barrel-aged beer?). I've heard from people connected to the brewery that Barrel Theory initially planned to do more non-New-England IPAs as well (recall that it debuted with a WCIPA, Batch 1, soon followed by the now only occasionally produced Drop Tops, which I was originally told was intended as a flagship) and that it very quickly switched from a planned heavy utilization of barrels to pumping out NEIPAs based on early sales and customer interest.

Added: Many breweries pivot as they get a better sense of the market. Noting that Barrel Theory pivoted is not a knock.

 

Barrel Theory makes a pretty good pilsner (more of a keller pils) called Rage Quit. It produced I think one batch of a quite good Hefeweizen (although it verged into weizenbock territory at 6.5% ABV). That's all I know of. In fact, I think those are the only beers it has made that don't fall into the categories of 1) hazy and/or milkshake IPA/Double IPA/APA (even the WCIPAs were hazy and leaned juicy), 2) fruited kettle sour, or 3) stout or porter with flavoring adjuncts (mostly "pastry stouts"). Any others?

Added: Not incidentally, Rage Quit and Hefeweizen are two of Barrel Theory's lowest-rated beers on Untappd.

 

Is this where we are? Denigrating a brewery for making bio transferred ipa, fruited sours, and just for fun stouts? Of course they are a brewery, to say they aren’t is just strange. Like you have some kind of hidden agenda. I’m not sure what exactly happened to make you feel this way, but my door is open if you need someone to talk to.

 

Your whole argument is predicated on your own opinion. For months now you keep circling back to the same tired tropes. Yawn.

 

I've actually found less cause to address this topic in recent months as the once overwhelming NEIPA hype has dissipated and conventional wisdom among beer geeks slowly but surely shifts toward my long-held position,* which is far from unique to me and indeed always was common in industry circles. To be clear, I'm not a participant in the craft beer industry, but I do try to keep my ear to the ground. As to the fate of NEIPAs in the market, I have my expectations, but only time will tell, and you demonstrate that the style retains some diehard fans even as it's shedding others.

* The old conventional wisdom among BeerAdvocate users seemed to be that NEIPAs represent the epitome of modern brewing prowess, that they're popular and highly rated based on their own plentiful merits, and that they're particularly appreciated by the most advanced and knowledgeable of craft beer enthusiasts. My position is that sweetness from copious residual sugars and flavors familiar from outside of beer (specifically those akin to tropical fruit juice) along with lack of bitterness and soothingly soft palates make NEIPAs inordinately accessible, that hype and social factors are major drivers of interest in the style, and that the style accrues enthusiasm disproportionately among less experienced craft beer drinkers.

 

Such a weird take, sir. Last time I looked, Black Stack is still selling them as fast as they can pump them out, & they're everywhere on the shelves & tap lists.

I know you're hostile towards them, but the idea that NE IPAs are fading is wishful thinking. Personally I think most of them are sweet garbage, with notable exceptions, & I'd love to see a thinning of the herd, but it ain't happening now. Or soon.

 

When is this rap music fad going away? Everyone knows real music involves singing! Hope those mainstream rappers are saving their money or pivot to singing once this fad is over!

 

Rap music is dead bro... it's shifted back to Hip Hop

 

Asterisk comment longer than the comment the asterisk is in...*chef's kiss*

 

If you still wonder why so many people think you’re an egotistical idiot, it’s because you constantly act like your opinion is right, and other people’s opinions are stupid. Like, you assume everyone that likes something that you don’t like is a “less experienced craft beer drinker” than you. Who hurt you so deeply emotionally to cause you to have such a need to feel superior? Inquiring minds would surely be interested. Some people want to drink a beer they like and hear about what’s going on in the craft beer world without constantly seeing you post your blabber about how everyone else is wrong.

 

Hallelujah!

 

There certainly is increasing industry chatter about a softening in demand for NEIPAs and worry about the market implications. I've heard it in recent months directly from multiple local brewers and brewery owners as well as retailers who sell NEIPAs. Their concerns, which I share, may or may not prove founded. I've been told by industry sources (who do not work at BlackStack and, again, may be wrong) that this was indeed a factor in BlackStack's hiring of Waddell. I'd like to be more specific, but I'm probably saying more than I'm supposed to already.

To be clear, I don't think a collapse in demand for NEIPAs -- or fruited kettle sours or pastry stouts -- would be a beneficial development overall. I think there's a real risk, though far from a guarantee, that many consumers of such beers won't find a home in other styles because so many of them haven't acquired a taste for traditional beer flavors. Consequently, if beers of that sort lose their cool factor, those customers could be lost to other beverages like sweet cocktails, sweet wines, sweet ciders, malternatives, alcopops, hard seltzers, etc. Some larger craft breweries are anticipating that possibility and hedging their bets by expanding into those markets, but most craft breweries are highly vulnerable to such a shift in consumer preferences. Those newer customers are propping up the already stagnant demand for craft beers among a growing number of producers, and losing them en masse could have large and very bad implications for the industry and remaining consumers. This is the sort of risk factor that someone wouldn't even notice if he misconstrued the source of the appeal of NEIPAs and their flavoring-adjuncted brethren.

While I've been harsher in the past, if you find my mild market analysis in this thread offensive, I urge you to avoid honest conversations with many of the brewers of your favorite beers; I've heard some merciless mockery of consumers and their tastes. The nature of the appeal of and target market for various beers has major implications for the direction of breweries and breweries-in-planning in Minnesota and beyond. I think it's a valid and potentially valuable subject of conversation, one that arose in this case due to a major strategic move by a Minnesota brewery (BlackStack's hiring of Waddell). That said, I'd be happy to abandon this tangent.

@sandbergandy, feel free to contribute information about breweries-in-planning in this thread. If you scoop me often enough, you'll probably hear less from me.

 

Oh I see now you want to instruct me to get my comments in this thread back on task. The hypocrisy is amazing. You spend time in many different threads in this forum blasting people’s taste and opinions if they differ from your own any time someone brings up a style you want to blast. You aren’t contributing information about breweries-in-planning when you go on your tangents blasting other consumer’s opinions. Your constant insults to anyone that likes a hazy IPA, a kettle sour, or a stout with adjuncts is “mild market analysis”? What a joke. Hearing less from you would be refreshing for quite a few people I’m sure. But if I’m wrong and everyone wants to continue to hear to tell everyone how stupid they are, I’m sure the masses will chime in and tell me I’m wrong to challenge such a highly evolved craft beer expert who is so superior in knowledge to the rest of us

 

Alright, the Airing of Grievances having been completed, we'll skip the Feats of Strength and get back to business...

22 Northmen Brewing Company in Alexandria has scheduled its grand opening for June 15. 22 Northmen is the brewing arm of Carlos Creek Winery. I'd be interested to know if 22 Northmen is exploiting the same legal loophole that Schram is using.

Falling Knife Brewing Company in Minneapolis seems to be doing well with its Indiegogo campaign. There's some good background info at the link. Long-time readers of the Minnesota breweries thread will recognize the 7,400 square footage figure from the infamous "brewery for sale" speculation of yore (spoiler alert: It was NorthGate). "Falling Knife is opening THIS summer."

Keep an eye out for news on Foremost Brewing Cooperative in Owatonna, which seems to be a much more concrete plan than was originally billed. Fellow Owatonna BIP Mineral Springs Brewery is making good progress too, as it's well into the construction phase.

Forgotten Star Brewing Co. is the name of the previously mentioned Fridley BIP (which briefly went by Slobberhaus). "Opening Fall 2019."

Linked is an article with some interesting tidbits about the state of Minnesota taprooms. Apparently Minnesota has passed Wisconsin in terms of the number of breweries. "[Evan] Sallee [cofounder of Fair State] says the market isn’t saturated, but it is 'saturating.'" It's not clear if he's talking about Minnesota or specifically Nordeast Minneapolis.

Paige Latham Didora gives a big thumbs up to the collaboration between Barrel Theory and the new Pig Ate My Pizza (open now in Robbinsdale as a bar and restaurant with the brewing equipment in place but not yet operating). She calls Simpler Times Berliner Weisse "[m]y favorite beer in Minnesota right now." The other "local brew experts" go with more classic fare (Rye IPAs count as "classics" now, right?).

 

Moreover, Blackstack uses only water, hops, yeast and malt in their NEIPA's.

 

Yes, @islay certainly has...opinions. But he also contributes a great deal of information to this thread especially. This is your fourth post in the last five years, all direct insults to @islay. I find that interesting.